English 095/101/102

We — those responsible for bringing composition courses to you — believe that writing is both a serious, powerful activity and a highly pleasurable one. Writing can be powerful because the writing you do matters: it affects people. It is pleasurable because putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) to shape sentences, paragraphs and essays engages one with the tones, rhythms, and textures of language. It is also pleasurable to communicate successfully something that matters to others.

We also approach writing as a social, even ethical, activity because, when we write, we have to think carefully about the relations we already have with one another and about the ways the choices we make in our writing may bring about new or different relationships. Sometimes when we write, we write to figure out what we want to say: we write to learn or to discover, without thinking of the writing as communication. But mostly when we write, we write to other people because we want or need to do something that only writing can enable us to do.

We hope, then, that in your writing classes you both take writing seriously and have some fun with it. Continue to play with words and sentences as you have been doing since you first began to speak (and later write).

Finally, we make a request of you: please remember that these are classes about writing and communication, so please communicate throughout the semester with each other in class and with us. Let us know what you think about your composition classes and what you think about the writing you are doing here at UWM.

Goals for First-Year Writers

While each composition course has a set of specific goals and practices that are particular to its place in the sequence of courses, all composition classes share a common set of goals:

Critical Reading/Critical Writing Connections: Writers will use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating.

Writing Process Strategies: Writers will use their writing as a means of developing a critical perspective on their reading.

Critical Reflective Practice: Writers will reflect critically on, evaluate, and revise their own reading and writing practices in light of academic and other reading and writing practices and course goals.

Sequence of First-Year Writing Courses

English 095 – Fundamentals of Composition

(3 credits, 0 graduation credits)

English 095 builds on students’ previous reading and writing practices by asking them to complete a sequence of critically reflective reading and writing assignments. Through this sequence, students develop multiple ways of interpreting texts, critically connect ideas from texts and students’ own experiences, shape meaning to meet readers’ expectations, and enhance fluency with academic writing conventions. Students also reflect on how their reading and writing practices shape the kinds of interpretations they develop.

English 101 – Introduction to College Writing

(3 credits, 3 graduation credits)

English 101 introduces students to college reading and writing practices through a sequence of writing assignments that integrates critical reading, writing, and reflection. Thus, the course is intended not only to build on but also to complicate students’ knowledge of texts and reading and writing practices.

English 102 – College Writing and Research

(3 credits, 3 graduation credits)

English 102 introduces students to academic research writing through a sequence of assignments in which students pose and investigate questions in response to their reading of course texts. The course builds on and complicates students’ understanding of the purposes and practices of research writing by asking students to investigate and engage in academic inquiry and presents academic inquiry as a process of positioning and developing one’s ideas in relation to others. Additionally, the course asks students to critically reflect on their reading, writing, and research strategies and those of their peers.

ESL 118 – Advanced College Writing in English as a Second Language

(3 credits, 3 graduation credits)

ESL 118 is equivalent to English 101 and is taught by instructors who are experienced working with writers whose first language is not English. Class size is limited to 16, and instruction is designed to help students strengthen their reading and writing in English.

Students qualify for ESL 118 by taking the ESL-PIC test or by passing a lower level ESL writing course. Find more information about the ESL-PIC test and ESL writing courses here: http://www4.uwm.edu/esl/.

Virginia Burke Writing Contest

The Virginia Burke Writing Contest honors first-year writers whose essays are judged the best of the year. It is named in honor of the late Professor Virginia Burke, an outstanding professor of English Composition who was devoted to undergraduate writing instruction at UWM. At the annual awards ceremony, first-place winners read their essays aloud; a reception follows the awards ceremony. This event brings students, teachers, administrators, family, and friends together to celebrate the academic achievements of UWM students.

Submissions for the 2014 contest (for students enrolled in English 095, 101, 102, 201 or ESL 118 during Spring, Summer, or Fall 2014) are due by Monday, March 9, 2015. Contest rules and entry forms are available in Curtin 433.